Food, travel, and more food…

Getting Some Culture

Homemade Cultured Butter

In the grossly overburdened portion of my brain devoted to food memories, a few first-time experiences stand out from the rest almost as vividly as the day they happened. There was my first raw oyster, slippery and briny and gone before I’d even registered its subtle flavor; my first taste of truffles, which actually caused me to exclaim ‘butane!’ because of their bizarre likeness to camping stove fuel; my first mouthful of smooth-as-silk foie gras; my first taste of butter…

Butter?

Yes butter, but not just any butter. Of course I’m not talking about the butter I grew up eating — or I should say, the butter I ate before the anti-butter scaremongering hit the media and my parents switched to some vile, purportedly heart-healthier substance. I honestly have no idea when I first tasted that butter, but it was probably long before I started making taste memories. I’m talking about the butter I discovered on my very first trip to France, at the home of the family friend who hosted me for a week and took it upon herself to introduce me to as many of France’s gastronomic delights as humanly possible. Among the cheeses and patés and potages and pastries she stuffed me with, I had a taste of a butter so remarkable I couldn’t stop thinking about it for years.

In my defence, it was amazing stuff. That butter possessed a creaminess beyond description, and a sweetly subtle, almost cheesy flavor. I had never had anything like it, and I slathered it on every surface I could find (including my naked fingers), probably consuming more in that week than in the totality of my life up to that point. What must they be feeding those French cows to get butter like this? I wondered. I imagined them lolling about in green fields, being hand-fed choice bits of tender spring stalks by doting farmers. Maybe they had regular massages à la Kobe cows, and perhaps soothing classical music was piped into their climate-controlled barns at night to help them sleep. I mean really, how else could you explain why this French butter was so good?

While I can’t say for sure that none of that actually happens in France, I do know something now that I didn’t know then. French butter is actually so delicious because the French routinely do something to their butter that Americans (and British, and most of the rest of the world) don’t: they give it some culture.

Simply put, culturing butter consists of fermenting the cream before the butter is churned. Have you ever had crème fraîche? Then you’ve tasted cultured butter’s parent. By introducing some dairy-friendly bacteria to the fresh cream, the sugars in the cream are converted to lactic acid; this, along with souring the cream, produces additional aroma compounds including diacetyl which make for a more complex and “buttery” taste (can you see I did my homework?). You wouldn’t think that souring cream would necessarily have a positive impact on the butter made from it (I mean, the thought of sour butter doesn’t exactly get your mouth watering, does it?), but surprisingly, it does: the butter absorbs just enough of the flavor compounds to acquire a subtle, mysterious and completely addictive tang.

When I was in the U.S. last summer, I noticed that Americans’ fascination with all things European has expanded to the dairy case, and cultured butter is now widely available. It was indeed delicious, but it was also obscenely expensive; I was almost glad that I don’t live there and have to face decisions such as either indulging in cultured butter or paying my rent on a regular basis. At home I still scanned the butter aisle religiously, however, hoping against hope that the cultured variety was about to catch on here in the UK, when lo and behold, I stumbled upon a completely unexpected piece of information. Did you know that cultured butter is actually a cinch to make at home? I certainly didn’t, but I have since confirmed it myself: it is not only a cinch, it is spectacular. All it takes is a quart of the richest, freshest organic cream you can lay your hands on, a few spoonfuls of a fermented dairy product like yogurt or buttermilk, and a little bit of patience. In 24 hours, you can have as much fresh, cultured butter as your long-suffering tastebuds desire – at a cost so low you will be able to slather it on not only your toast every morning, but each and every one of your fingers too, and you’ll still be able to pay your rent in the process.

Now if only I could find a way to make that happen with oysters, truffles and foie gras…

Cultured Butter

I actually have reader and fellow blogger Dominic to thank for clueing me in to the fact that cultured butter can be made at home. I had no idea, but after reading his description, I got to work and have now made my own not once, not twice, but three times in the last week. Uh yeah, I know that’s a lot of butter. But it’s amazing stuff, and worth every luscious, calorie-laden bite. There’s not much to tell you here that the recipe doesn’t; the only thing I’ll stress is the importance of getting yourself really good (preferably organic) cream, since tasty cream=tasty butter. But you could have probably figured that one out for yourself.Yield: 12-14 ounces (340-400g) of butter, depending on the fat content of your cream (note that the recipe can easily be halved)

4 cups (1ltr) heavy or double cream (the best quality, and highest butterfat you can find) 1/3 cup (80ml) plain whole-milk yogurt, crème fraîche or buttermilk (check the ingredients to make sure these do not conatin any gums or stabilizers) ice salt, to taste (flaky fleur de sel or Maldon salt is great)

Begin by culturing your cream (this is an overnight process, so plan accordingly). In a clean glass or ceramic container (bowl, jar, etc) combine the cream and yogurt, crème fraîche or buttermilk. Cover loosely and place it in a warmish part of the house – the ideal temperature is around 75F (23C), but anywhere in the range from 70-80F (20-26C) is okay.

After 12-18 hours, the cream should be noticeably thicker and should taste slightly tangy, i.e. like crème fraîche. If it’s bubbling and gassy, some unwanted bacteria have gotten in there so discard your cream and start again (note that this has never happened to me). If it hasn’t thickened yet, leave it alone for another few hours and eventually it will. When your cream has thickened, if you are not ready to make your butter right away, transfer the container to the fridge where you can leave it for up to another 24 hours.

In order to churn properly, the cream needs to be at about 60F (15C). If you’re taking it out of the fridge just let it warm up until it reaches this temperature; if you’re making it from room temperature you’ll need to place the bowl in a bath of ice water for a few minutes to cool it down. Also, fill a large bowl with water and ice cubes and keep it handy.

You can use any method you want to beat the cream; handheld electric beater, stand mixer, etc – even whisking by hand if you’re trying to pre-emptively burn off a few calories. Basically, just put the thickened cream in a clean, deep bowl and start beating as if you’re making whipped cream. When the cream starts to form stiff peaks, reduce the speed to low. At this point watch carefully; first the peaks will start to look grainy, and a few seconds later the cream will break. When it does you’ll know it – globules of yellow butterfat will be swimming in a sea of buttermilk (see picture, below left), and if you’re beating too fast you’ll have buttermilk everywhere. Stop beating and carefully tilt the bowl over a cup, holding back the butter clumps as best you can, and drain away as much buttermilk as possible. You can use this just like commercial buttermilk, by the way, and it’s delicious.

Now you have to wash the butter to get rid of all the residual buttermilk, which would cause it to spoil prematurely. Using a fork (my preferred implement) or a stiff rubber spatula, pour some of your reserved icewater over the butter, kneading and stirring it around vigorously. The water will turn whitish and the butter will firm up, making it cohere and knead more easily (see picture, below right). Pour out the liquid and repeat as many times as needed until the water sloshing around in your bowl is completely clear. After you’ve poured off the last of the liquid, continue kneading for a few more minutes to get as much water as possible out of the butter. If you want salted butter, add your favorite salt now, to taste.

You’ve now got a generous supply of your very own cultured butter. Pack it into ramekins, roll it in waxed paper, or fill cute little molds with it before refrigerating; I recommend freezing some if you won’t be able to finish what you’ve made within a week or so. Whether storing it in the fridge or freezer, though, keep it tightly covered, as butter is a sponge for other aromas.

Left: the cream just after breaking. Right: the butter after two or three washes.

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68 thoughts on “Getting Some Culture”

When I was a child my grandfather brought milk of the stay and my grandmother us toward whipping the cream until he separated the serum, in a moment to other,only in one second and there was shortening. After my grandfather passed away the stay was sold and never more I listened on homemade shortening. Thank you to take me again at those old times

My grandma used to make this butter at the farm she owned with grandpa. They had a few cows and always a surplus of milk…thank God! It tastes like nothing else! I remember she made it shaking a milk container tied up in the ceiling until it becames butter. Much better than the thing we buy in the grocery store and they call butter…homesick of those days.Thanks for the post!Regards from Brasil!

I remember my Mother (in India) skimming milk to get the cream and storing it in fridge. When she accumulated enough cream over a week, she would then churn it in the same way as you mentioned. This was followed by some heating and cooling (do not remember excatly). But the end result was ‘Ghee’, a type of clarified butter. So, I guess it was one step further from making butter. Your writing and wonderful pictures brought those lovely childhood memories back along with the heady smell of Ma making Ghee.

I too remember my mother making butter with the full fat cream skimmed off the top of the gallon jars of fresh unpasteurized milk that was delivered to us, along with complimentary bible tracks, by an aging bachelor farmer whose octogenarian mother always accompanied him in the car. There’s no place like home.

What an amazing post! I have never ever considered making my own butter! I thought it was way too difficult, but your post makes it easy! I’m not sure I will attempt it just yet, but if I do want to make it, I’ll know where to go!

I was just working on making the same thing when I saw Luisa’s link to here. Memories of my grandmother and the serendipitous purchase of some butter molds were giving me the itch. Thanks for your step by step, it’s going to help.

Hi Melissa,So glad I could manage to inspire you, as you have definitely done that for me on more than one occasion! My inspiration on that particular entry came from Dorie Greenspan: http://www.doriegreenspan.com/dorie_greenspan/2007/04/better_butter_a.htmlThe cookie recipe she offers was a nice way to showcase homemade cultured butter in a baked good. I might be nuts, but the cookies tasted richer than when I tried them with good ol’ American butter.My best,Dominic

Ooo thank you! I have been making home made butter for a while but I was always missing that little tang. I never thought of culturing butter like this. I am going to surprise my mother with some! She has been talking about it now for months, how she misses it. She use to make it as a girl, the old fashioned way, with a butter churn. BTW, I know your proclivity for shortcuts, so here’s one from me; the butter will stay for a week in the fridge if you do not wash it. However, if you freeze it right away you don’t have to wash it at all. Since I don’t eat much butter, I always freeze my batches. So after I drain the liquid I keep the mixer going until it creates a nice clump form me. I take this clump, rinse under cold running water then place in a plastic container and freeze. Make it a little bit of a quicker process.

Just brilliant! And inspiring. A friend of mine grew up as an American in Egypt during some tenuous times, and I remember her stories of them churning their own butter when it wasn’t safe to go to the local market. It was one of the reasons they eventually moved, but she always loved the butter!

I was so impressed by your post and as we’re missing the salted butter from the UK I went to try it immedialty last weekend and it was so easy and very very tasty. like you say, I don’t think it’ll have a long life!

Hi Melissa,I discovered making my own butter last summer thanks to an organic farm coop I belong to. They sent us a sack of garlic chive blossoms along with instructions on how to make butter (non-cultured). The instructions were to make the butter, then add some salt and then mix in the chive blossoms, finely chopped. The result is some incredibly good compound butter, with a beautiful purple hue. Probably even better with the cultured butter — give it a try if you can get your hands on some garlic chive blossoms (or perhaps some garlic scapes)… I know I will! Thanks for the great post!

I had no idea it was this that made French butter unique!In India, we do it all the time – in practically every household that buys full-cream milk. Everyday the cream is skimmed off the top of the milk after it has boiled and cooled, and put out for a few hours in a clean bowl mixed with some yoghurt, till it is set (cultured!). Fresh cream is added to it everyday, mixed, and put back in the fridge till the bowl is full. Once full, it is turned into butter exactly as you have described. And buttermilk obtained this way is the ingredient for the best kadhi you can have!

Sounds good! I taught small children for awhile and one of the things that they loved to do was painted bread with homemade butter. We would take cream and shake it in a quart jar until it made butter! A little food coloring in milk was the paint. The children used a clean, new paint brush and painted the bread. Then it was toasted in a toaster and spread with the homemade butter! Thanks for reminding me. I think it is time to do this fun project with my Grandkids!!

I can imagine cultured butter, bringing buttered baby carrots up a good few levels.I only recently found ‘The Traveller’s Lunchbox’. Who knows why, I seem to have visited everywhere else.So, I’m periodically working my way through and it’s a lot of fun. Best writing I’ve seen in a long time.

Fascinating! I think we actually made butter once when I was in first or second grade, but I had forgotten all about it. Thanks for sharing this. I am always lamenting the difficulty of getting really good butter in the U.S.–even the European ones you can find at Whole Foods, etc., don’t compare to what you can find in France. But I will have to try this!

Holy God. I am doing this this weekend. And slathering it all over my grandpa’s homemade whole wheat and molasses bread. I am never eating anything else again. I just found this blog, and what a way to lure me in!!

utterly fascinating! i have to admit i have never even heard of cultured butter but it sounds wonderful, and reading this beautifully written post about making it at home has considerably cheered up my boring deskbound morning. one day i shall get round to trying this…

This was so easy and so delicious! My friends looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was going to do it, but they appreciated the cookies made with the cultured butter – old fashioned oatmeal molasses! Thanks for the idea and the easy to follow instructions.

You Rock!I love your site. I also love European butter! Here in Vancouver I can buy it for a mere $9. dollars a pound. Yikes! It’s funny I have "almost" made butter a few times just by over whipping cream but never really realized how easy it really is. Thanks – (my thighs of course don’t thank you, but my taste buds sure do).

A wonderful post!My friends in SW France had a Jersey cow for years, and there was always a surplus of fresh cream. Simply decanting the cream into a mason jar, and then shaking it for (what seemed like) ages, it would suddenly "turn" `and we would then just squeeze off the buttermilk with a pair of butter hands (wooden spatulas) and our weekly butter was ready!So tasty, satisfying, and quite good exercise too!More people should make butter like this. We wouldn’t feel so guilty for eating a special and superb food it we’d made it ourselves!lloyd

I recently visited your lovely blog for the first time and I decided to try cultivated butter right away! The procedure IS incredibly easy – thanks to your explanation – I advise everyone to try. I live in Italy, it is so warm it only took eight hours to get creme fraiche out of the cream plus yoghurt. The only problem I had is that I couldn’t get here any seriously good cream, and that is what makes the final difference. My butter was good, but not really tasteful. I remember butter from cows in the Alps, in summer time, when I was a kid… no cultivated stuff at all, the local butter often tasted like cheese (ouch!) with a faint hint of smoke, and when it was good (not green, not cheesey) it was incredible.Thanks again!

I did make this this weekend, and I did slather it all over homemade bread, and I might be the happiest girl in the whole world. However, very watery. How do we feel about leaving in in a cheese-cloth lined colander for a couple house before packaging it up?

echoing what spee and anita said about skimming cream, making butter and melting it for ghee. i used to churn for butter every week. it was one of my first jobs in the kitchen. and our milk came from buffalos which had higher fat content than cow’s milk. of course, this milk was so fresh that the cow/buffalo was milked right outside our home. after a quick boil and instant cooling, the fat globules float on the surface ready for skimming. buffalo cream was more yellow than cow’s cream which was …well..creamish-white.my favourite bit was the sediment after clarifying the ghee. it is like hardened bits of beurre noisette. a little rice mixed with the hot ghee sediment is heavenly.m, did you tasted smen in morocco? i dont recall if you wrote about it in your morocco entry. i was very surprised when the smen i tried in egypt was much like slightly funky ghee…only to find out later that it wasnt smen at all..just a bastardised modern version of it.

Ok. I’m going to do this. I do have one question: can anyone tell me if the salt added to the butter is sufficient to protect against e-coli and other bacteria?I am curious because I was considering using raw milk to make butter. Thanks.

Growing up we had a single Jersey milk cow and in the summer her heavy cream would be thick and dark dark yellow from the fresh grass. She’d give three gallons of milk a day at the top of her cycle. A good quart of cream would rise to the top as it got cold in the fridge..If a gallon didn’t get used, and got a touch old and tangy we’d skim the 5" of cream off the top and churn butter. Yum. Of course, I suppose we’re lucky to be alive after drinking raw milk for that many years. But we followed proper sanitary measures, dairy disinfectant (really nasty iodine stuff) on everything after each milking. At the time, it was an onerous chore. These days I realize just how lucky I was.I’ll have to pick up some cream this weekend and churn some cultured butter. It won’t be the same, the taste of the fields isn’t there in the pasteurized stuff. Thanks for the memory. Love your blogGinger.

to michael: re raw milk. you are going to give it the heat treatment anyways. bring it to a quick boil(around 190-200 deg..it is important to bring it to a boil so that the caesin and whey doesnt seperate) and cool it at once.bniv, i dont know how it works with cream, but for making yogurt.. i spike milk with yogurt culture when it is lukewarm to touch. not very scientific, i know. incubation will work between 98deg and 120 deg for the four commonly used cultures. but your range of 110-115 should be perfect/optimal even though different cultures incubate at diff temperatures. but it is not a good idea to introduce the culture as it will die at 125 deg and at 41 deg, it will stop being active..i.e. the process happens between the temperatures of 120 deg and 41 deg. it is very important to bring to a boil(190-200 deg) to pasteurise the milk and cool it *quickly* to 115-120 deg before introducing the culture.so, anyways..in real life…usually, after the boil, i’d place the hot milk in a bain marie of cold water. when the bain marie water is lukewarm to touch, it is pretty much the same temperature as the now cool milk. at this point, i will set aside the milk container in a warm place and spike the warm milk with culture. its iffy in winter. cold weather is not yogurt’s friend.there are at least four kinds of cultures. you can use kefir which is the lactobacillus strain. greek yogurt is a different culture. in the usa, pavel’s yogurt culture is close to what we have in india(combination of lactobacillus bulgaricus and sterptococcus thermophilus)..dannon yogurt is lactobacillus acidophilus.it takes about 1/4 cup of culture for every lt of milk. and about 2-4 hours for it to set. and an additional 2 hours in the fridge.

I just don’t understand, I’ve read several blogs and several comments about how easy it is to make butter. I followed the instructions, but my science experiment failed miserably. It never wanted to leave the soft whipped stage…I’m thinking it must be due to the temperature became too warm. So I put it back into the fridge for an hour to cool it down again and tried once again with my kitchenaid mixer. No luck. Anyone with any ideas? Or am I the only one who couldn’t make it work?

Thank you so much for posting this!You have a great site and I had a ball this weekend making my OWN cultured butter. I impressed all who had a taste and I loved that it was something I could easily do at home.Thanks from Long Island,Amy

susan, if you are using uht cream(anything ‘homogenised’ is passed through a fine nozzle so that the fat is all dispersed..so you got no fat globules in uht milk like you’d find in raw milk because the very cell structure of the fat is broken down and distributed evenly..agitation of the cream seperates the butter and whey…wont happen with uht/homogenised dairy) you probably cant make your own butter from it. look at the ingredient list and see what else it contains. also, cream is 100% fat.

Just found your wonderful blog! I love to cook, but never considered making my own butter! I too am an American living in Scotland so I can relate to many of your postings. I would love to link your blog to mine.

Hi everyone, sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you, and thanks for all your lovely comments! I must say I’m envious of so many of you who had the pleasure of home-churned butter growing up. Kind of puts my supermarket-butter childhood to shame, doesn’t it?DC365 – I had pockets of water in the first batch I made, so the second time I really kneaded it hard, spreading and smearing it around the bowl to get as much out as possible. Either it did the trick, or else I just distributed the water well enough so that it wasn’t noticeable. If you have any success with another method, do let me know! faustianbargain – Thanks for all your great butter-making tips. To answer your question, I don’t think I tasted smen in Morocco, but it may have been a component of something else I ate. I was in fact looking out for it, but it seems to be in pretty short supply, at least in tourist areas. Michael – faustianbargain seems to know a lot more about raw milk than me, so I’ll defer to the expert on this one. I do know that there’s a lot of disagreement on the bacteriological dangers of raw milk; obviously heating the milk or cream first would do away with that risk. As for how the salt affects things, I really don’t know.bniv – I know yogurt is typically cultured around 100F, but you don’t need to keep the cream at that temperature to culture it; most recipes for homemade creme fraiche have you just leave it out at room temperature overnight, and that has always worked for me. That said, I’m far from the expert!Susan – As faustianbargain suggested, perhaps the cream itself is to blame – maybe try a different brand? And the cream should be cold, but it doesn’t have to be icy – a temperature of around 50-60 degrees is ideal. The only other thing I can think of it to make sure your cream is as high in butterfat as possible (i.e. go for ‘heavy whipping’ instead of just ‘whipping’), as the more fat, the easier it whips. Apart from that, just have patience and just whip the living daylights out of it!

Hi Melissa… The article was a good read.. All the memories of my mom and grand mom making butter routinely once in a few days , in India came back to my mind… I was a kid and never realised the value of that natural ingredient at that time.. BTW, am glad i can make it US , too, with the help of ur article..

Hi, and thanks for the great post! I’ve been making cultured butter at home now for about a year with the food processor, but I recently took the next step and got an antique hand cranked churn off ebay. It actually churns to butter faster than the food processor, which is kind of wierd…I also put up a little page on making cultured butter at home here:http://www.positron.org/food/butter/

Thank you for postig these directions. I just finished my first batch and it is wonderful. The butter is so much more flavorful than the un-cultured butter. Now, to find the perfect recipe to use up that buttermilk!

This looks great. I gave it a try but didn’t have any luck. Turns out the Whole Food’s fat free plain organic yogurt has pectin in it. I am pretty sure the pectin acts as a stabilizer. I could get the cream to separate, even cranked the Kitchen Aid up to 11. I will def try again though. I have a picture of my failed experiment up here: LINK Lesson learned- check ingredients twice, cook once.

Luke – Pectin may be the culprit, but there’s also a chance the cream’s fat content wasn’t high enough to whip properly, due to your use of nonfat yogurt. Why don’t you try creme fraiche instead, or try using less (maybe around 1/2 the amount) of yogurt or buttermilk. It’ll take slightly longer to sour but it’ll taste just the same.

I just finished making this- it’s so good! I got stuck with store-brand heavy cream because my local natural foods store (the only such place I currently have access to) was out, but it’s still pretty amazing. I plan on trying it with better cream ASAP.

Thank you so much for the recipe!!. As a young child in India, I saw my grandma boil the non-homogenized buffalo or cow milk everyday, which would result in thick layer of cream and milk separated(now i know why the milk tasted nasty, it was skim). SHe would save the cream everyday and churn it(hand held wooden beater) at the end of the week, which i remember helping her with, to make fresh cream and buttermilk. But the taste was different than the commercial butter here in USA, It was creamy,fluffy, a bit like sour cream but clean taste, which now i realized by your post that it was cultured butter. I now know that she probably added a bit of homemade yogurt to the cream.Thank you again for bringing back wonderful memories!! I’ll definitely try this in my kitchen.

Thank you thank you thank you! I am a Canadian living in Paris, and have become addicted to beurre d’isigny and French butter in general. I’ve been worried about what I’m going to do when I return to Canada next spring, where I’ll be lacking all sorts of French food anything, but your recipe (and your blog, for that matter) just gave me all sorts of hope.Merci merci bien! And keep up the good work 🙂

I’ve recently begun making butter, and I love it. It’s a lot of fun, and very tasty. I have had to use ultrapasteurized cream thus far (still makes a nice, delicate butter), but I am on the hunt for non-heat treated cream in my area. I have not made cultured butter yet, because I wanted to get my technique down first, but I think I’m ready for it now.Happy buttering!

Hello! I just wanted to say Thank You! I made some butter today following your instructions, it has turned out really well!I didn’t have a thermometer, so it was a bit ‘guesswork’. After adding the creme fraiche to the cream I left it overnight in the warm kitchen, that worked ok. Then after about 14 hours I put it in a bowl of cold water with ice cubes for an hour to cool it off, that worked too! It churned beautifully in 9 minutes using an old Dasey butter churn. I used the churn to work the ice water through it to wash it as well.THANKS so much!!!

My grandmother still does it! And she taught me how to do it a few months ago as well, but unfortunately I have had problems figuring out how to do it in America where we usually can’t get "buffalo milk." So this is big help and I am going to give it a try today. Thank you very much for posting something like this.

Last week I made uncultured butter, turned out great.This time I tried the cultured route. I used the same cream as before (500ml) and added 3 tbsp of nice organic yogurt (3%, active cultures).I left the mixture out for about 20 hours or so, and it was definatily tangy, but not super thick. I tried to churn it as I did before, but it just wouldn’t thicken – Even after 25 mins. Last time it happened fairly quickly. Any ideas what might have gone wrong?Thanks.

Hi,Do not use youghurt to culture your cream! It does not have the right lactobacteria that will give the proper butter taste. The one and only is Lactobacillus Diacetylactis. Ask your dairy if their cultured milks etc contains it, otherwise dont bother making the cultured butter, it will taste tangy without it but not butter.I am a small butter maker in Sweden that supplies top restaurants with butter. A cool fact is that it was the Vikings who introduced butter to France (Normandie) and the rest of europe.Check out my webpage: http://www.vallmobacken.se/Patrik

Ok so I’m a bit late on the ball with all of this. Secretely the only thing I can cook is crepes and steak, but..after reading your wonderful blog I’ve been inspired to cook. And this morning I made cultured butter! It was so much fun and an absolute bloody miracle when I found myself kneading a lump of actual butter at the end! I don’t know what I was expecting but it was not something that looked that normal. So thanks heaps! the butter is mind blowing and I can’t wait to try more of your recipes. You’re the light during my exam period 😀

Wonderful! I spent the past four years in Ireland eating gobs of the most delicious cultured butter and am once again back home in America eating the white stuff, which tastes like shortening now. I bought a gallon of raw milk the other day, collected as much cream as I could off the top once it had settled, added a dab of creme fraiche and let it sit for a couple of days–made the butter in a mason jar tonight and WOW. HEAVENLY. Creamy and sweet and salty (like the French demi-sel), and wonderful. Thank you!

Hi,I was wondering if I can use homemade kefir for a starter instead of the yoghurt?kind regards, SophiaIt should work, though it might give the butter a slightly different flavor. Why don't you a small batch first and see how it goes? And then let me know! -m

Thank you so much for your wonderful and inspirational post! Here in Greece, butter is so expensive like it's a luxury item! It's a pity that most people substitute it with margarine because of that. Can't wait to make my own and spread the word!!